I saw him coming. It looked half the length of the boat and was going straight for my fly. Then hardly ten feet from the rod tip, the fly disappeared and I reared back. The second the monster felt steel, he shot under the boat and headed into the bay. This first finger-burning run was nearly 60 feet and ended with the fish clearing the water in a porpoise-like jump. This allowed me to get another good look at him, and now I was really excited and a little worried. Convinced it was well over 40 inches, I prayed my 14-pound-test leader would hold. But fortunately, this big boy had headed away from the shoreline rather than back into the wood. After almost 15 minutes and 4 or 5 more major runs, I was able to hand off my rod to my boat partner and lift 44 inches and 23 pounds of thick-bodied pike into the boat.

   My biggest pike on a fly ever, and this was just my first day at the lodge! The next day Jason and I decided to stay on Yoke Lake, the body of water the lodge is on and the resort's primary fishing lake. Spring was early this year and we had heard the smallies were already shallow. Trying some rock and gravel shorelines, we quickly found eager fish. There were good numbers of smallmouth, along with a few largemouth, in the 15- to 17-inch range ready to go. Slow-sinking woolly buggers and Shenk's Streamers were the ticket, and by mid-afternoon we had released over 30 fish.

Twenty Inchers
   Deciding to fish just a little more shoreline before calling it a day, I dropped my fly along a downed pine that extended well into the lake. I saw a telltale twitch of the line as the fly slowly settled, so I set the hook. Nearly instantly a huge red-eyed beauty cleared the surface and I was fast to the biggest fish of the day. It was a full 20 inches and a little over 4 pounds. Cruising down the lake and back to the lodge at the end of the day, I felt these two days of "pre-fishing" were nothing short of spectacular.

   Late that afternoon another ten guests flew into the lodge eager for their next four days of fishing. That evening in the lodge I explained the different angling possibilities in the six lakes the lodge has access to. Then I helped everyone get rigged and ready for their upcoming fishing. Smallies were the star attraction, but with 5 other gamefish also available, it made an exciting "Super Slam" of 6 species guys could try for.

Muskie Mania
   The next day was "muskie mania." Yoke Lake's muskie population is robust and plenty of them decided to show themselves. Even though many in our party were only throwing smaller flies for bass, almost everyone had muskie follows or strikes. In my boat, Jason and I had three different fish over 36 inches follow our big streamers to the boat. In fact, two of these fish (both 40 to 42 inches) repeatedly followed. Mr. 'ski would first follow my fly, then drift away, but when Jason cast towards the fish it would turn and follow his offering. Of course, this is a recipe for madness and I'll admit to incoherent babbling by the end of the day.

   And it was much the same for the other guests who had stayed on Yoke Lake that day. Only two fish over 30 inches were actually landed, along with some smaller specimens, but many more follows occurred. And of course a couple of guys swore the leviathans that shadowed their flies were over 4 feet long. The muskie frenzy declined after that day, but smallmouth, pike and largemouth action was terrific. One day, two guys landed over 40 smallies, including a 21-incher. On another day, 4 guys went t Sullivan, the best pike lake, and landed several fish over 34 inches, including a 43-incher.

Bigmouth Frenzy
   And the largemouth! Three lakes have bucketmouths instead of smallies, and the number of 17- to 20-inch largemouth was amazing. It was warm enough for a surface bite and some wood-lined shorelines were nearly paved with hard-charging Canadian bass. Two guys landed over 60 largemouth one day and several others in the party had 40- to 50-fish days.

   Even the walleyes cooperated. If you were willing to use a sink-tip and get down 7 or 8 feet, plenty of 14- to 18-inch 'eyes could be caught on flies. And in the evening, floating lines in 3 feet of water would produce scads of eager 'eyes right off the dock.

   No one on this first Ontario trip got the entire Super Slam (it was a little too warm for shallow water lake trout) but several guys got close, landing 5 of the 6 species. And even folks with little experience discovered just how exciting and satisfying lake fly fishing can be. Of course, the fishing was the main attraction, but it was more than that. Beautiful Canadian Shield scenery soothed the soul and North Country wildlife such as moose, bears and loons added to the feeling. Even the group's camaraderie around the lodge in the evening seemed have a special quality.

   I've been leading trips back to that same Ontario lodge for several years and all of them have been thoroughly enjoyable. But that first one was a true adventure in the best sense of the term. Are you ready for the Quest?